Computer Sciences Commons^™

Physical Unclonable Function Techniques Applied For Digital Hardware Protection, Anthony Barrera

Dissertations and Theses

"Privacy is an important property that is growing harder to keep as people develop new ways to steal information from users on their computers. Software alone cannot ensure privacy since an infected system is untrustworthy. This paper presents several challenges malware brings that can be solved by using an external processor. Techniques such as keystroke encryption and message authentication can be used to protect users from having their passwords and other private data stolen. To take advantage of the external hardware, a physical unclonable function can be used to generate private keys without the need for storing them in memory. …

3d Hallway Modeling Using A Single Image, Gregory M. Olmschenk

Dissertations and Theses

"Real-time, low-resource corridor reconstruction using a single consumer grade RGB camera is a powerful tool for allowing a fast, inexpensive solution to indoor mobility of a visually impaired person or a robot. The perspective and known geometry of a corridor is used to extract the important features of the image and create a 3D model from a single image. Multiple 3D models can be combined to increase confidence and provide a global 3D model. This paper presents our results on 3D corridor modeling using single images. First a simple but effective 3D corridor modeling approach is introduced which makes very …

Discrete Transforms With Good Time-Frequency And Spatial-Frequency Localization, David Chisholm

Dissertations and Theses

Discrete orthonormal time-frequency basis functions are described and used for both analysis and synthesis of complex-valued signals. We derive expressions for complex-valued expansion coefficients in time-frequency lattices in the discrete one dimensional case. This derivation is based on Professor I. Gertner's previous construction of a complete orthonormal set of basis functions well localized in the temporal-spatial-frequency domain in the continuous case. We describe how these can be generalized to any number of dimensions. Example applications are presented in one and two dimensions. Three dimensional basis functions are visualized and discussed. Finally, a full a Matlab implementation of this work is …

Effects Of Social Media On Individual Voting, Noel Albert Bermudez

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama established social media as an essential part of the campaign toolbox. Twitter, a widely-used social media site, provides a means of creating virtual communities that can instantly send messages and move "followers" to action. This thesis seeks to ascertain if Twitter messages - sent to known supporters by a presidential campaign asking a person to vote - can positively affect that person's likelihood to cast a ballot and, if so, would that vote be for the candidate whose campaign tweeted the message. Media ecology, as proposed by Marshall McLuhan and developed by Neil …

Conversion Of Domain Type Enforcement Language To The Java Security Manager, James Walker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

With today's prevalence of Internet-connected systems storing sensitive data and the omnipresent threat of technically skilled malicious users, computer security remains a critically important field. Because of today's multitude of vulnerable systems and security threats, it is vital that computer science students be taught techniques for programming secure systems, especially since many of them will work on systems with sensitive data after graduation. Teaching computer science students proper design, implementation, and maintenance of secure systems is a challenging task that calls for the use of novel pedagogical tools. This report describes the implementation of a compiler that converts mandatory access …

State Space Reduction For Sensor Networks Using Two-Level Partial Order Reduction, Manchun Zheng, David Sanán, Jun Sun, Yang Liu, Jin Song Dong, Yu Gu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Wireless sensor networks may be used to conduct critical tasks like fire detection or surveillance monitoring. It is thus important to guarantee the correctness of such systems by systematically analyzing their behaviors. Formal verification of wireless sensor networks is an extremely challenging task as the state space of sensor networks is huge, e.g., due to interleaving of sensors and intra-sensor interrupts. In this work, we develop a method to reduce the state space significantly so that state space exploration methods can be applied to a much smaller state space without missing a counterexample. Our method explores the nature of networked …

Internet Accessible Remote Real-Time Laboratory For Computer Networking Curriculum, Oyindamola Idowu

Masters Theses

Despite the availability of equipment required to teach hands-on laboratory practices in a computer networking curriculum, educators are faced with the challenge of extending such practices to students in remote locations. Distance learning has become a substantial part of the current education system, requiring institutes of learning adjusting from traditional face-to-face courses to content that can be carried out over the internet so that students can complete part or all the requirements for certain courses in an online modality. Unfortunately, traditional networking laboratories were designed with the assumption students will be physically present. This research is aimed to provide at …

Epistemic Updates On Algebras, Alexander Kurz, Alessandra Palmigiano

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We develop the mathematical theory of epistemic updates with the tools of duality theory. We focus on the Logic of Epistemic Actions and Knowledge (EAK), introduced by Baltag-Moss-Solecki, without the common knowledge operator. We dually characterize the product update construction of EAK as a certain construction transforming the complex algebras associated with the given model into the complex algebra associated with the updated model. This dual characterization naturally generalizes to much wider classes of algebras, which include, but are not limited to, arbitrary BAOs and arbitrary modal expansions of Heyting algebras (HAOs). As an application of this dual characterization, we …

Dynamic Sequent Calculus For The Logic Of Epistemic Actions And Knowledge, Giuseppe Greco, Alexander Kurz, Alessandra Palmigiano

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

"Dynamic Logics (DLs) form a large family of nonclassical logics, and perhaps the one enjoying the widest range of applications. Indeed, they are designed to formalize change caused by actions of diverse nature: updates on the memory state of a computer, displacements of moving robots in an environment, measurements in models of quantum physics, belief revisions, knowledge updates, etc. In each of these areas, DL-formulas express properties of the model encoding the present state of affairs, as well as the pre- and post-conditions of a given action. Actions are semantically represented as transformations of one model into another, encoding the …

Nominal Regular Expressions For Languages Over Infinite Alphabets, Alexander Kurz, Tomoyuki Suzuki, Emilio Tuosto

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We propose regular expressions to abstractly model and study properties of resource-aware computations. Inspired by nominal techniques – as those popular in process calculi – we extend classical regular expressions with names (to model computational resources) and suitable operators (for allocation, deallocation, scoping of, and freshness conditions on resources). We discuss classes of such nominal regular expressions, show how such expressions have natural interpretations in terms of languages over infinite alphabets, and give Kleene theorems to characterise their formal languages in terms of nominal automata.

Social-Context Based Routing And Security In Delay Tolerant Networks, Roy A. Cabaniss

Doctoral Dissertations

"Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) were originally intended for interplanetary communications and have been applied to a series of difficult environments: wireless sensor networks, unmanned aerial vehicles, and short-range personal communications. There is a class of such environments in which nodes follow semi-predictable social patterns, such as wildlife tracking or personal devices. This work introduces a series of algorithms designed to identify the social patterns present in these environments and apply this data to difficult problems, such as efficient message routing and content distribution. Security is also difficult in a mobile environment. This is especially the case in the event that …

Polarization And Opinion Analysis In An Online Argumentation System For Collaborative Decision Support, Ravi Santosh Arvapally

Doctoral Dissertations

"Argumentation is an important process in a collaborative decision making environment. Argumentation from a large number of stakeholders often produces a large argumentation tree. It is challenging to comprehend such an argumentation tree without intelligent analysis tools. Also, limited decision support is provided for its analysis by the existing argumentation systems. In an argumentation process, stakeholders tend to polarize on their opinions, and form polarization groups. Each group is usually led by a group leader. Polarization groups often overlap and a stakeholder is a member of multiple polarization groups. Identifying polarization groups and quantifying a stakeholder's degree of membership in …

Verification Of Information Flow Security In Cyber-Physical Systems, Rav Akella

Doctoral Dissertations

"With a growing number of real-world applications that are dependent on computation, securing the information space has become a challenge. The security of information in such applications is often jeopardized by software and hardware failures, intervention of human subjects such as attackers, incorrect design specification and implementation, other social and natural causes. Since these applications are very diverse, often cutting across disciplines a generic approach to detect and mitigate these issues is missing. This dissertation addresses the fundamental problem of verifying information security in a class of real world applications of computation, the Cyber-physical systems (CPSs). One of the motivations …

Location Based Services In Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Neelanjana Dutta

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this dissertation, we investigate location based services in wireless ad hoc networks from four different aspects - i) location privacy in wireless sensor networks (privacy), ii) end-to-end secure communication in randomly deployed wireless sensor networks (security), iii) quality versus latency trade-off in content retrieval under ad hoc node mobility (performance) and iv) location clustering based Sybil attack detection in vehicular ad hoc networks (trust). The first contribution of this dissertation is in addressing location privacy in wireless sensor networks. We propose a non-cooperative sensor localization algorithm showing how an external entity can stealthily invade into the location privacy of …

Privacy-Preserving Friend Recommendations In Online Social Networks, Bharath Kumar Samanthula

Doctoral Dissertations

"Online social networks, such as Facebook and Google+, have been emerging as a new communication service for users to stay in touch and share information with family members and friends over the Internet. Since the users are generating huge amounts of data on social network sites, an interesting question is how to mine this enormous amount of data to retrieve useful information. Along this direction, social network analysis has emerged as an important tool for many business intelligence applications such as identifying potential customers and promoting items based on their interests. In particular, since users are often interested to make …

Charlie: A New Robot Prototype For Improving Communication And Social Skills In Children With Autism And A New Single-Point Infrared Sensor Technique For Detecting Bbeathing And Heart Rate Remotely, Laura Boccanfuso

Theses and Dissertations

This research delivers a new, interactive game-playing robot named CHARLIE and a novel technique for remotely detecting breathing and heart rate using a single-point, thermal infrared sensor (IR). The robot is equipped with a head and two arms, each with two degrees of freedom, and a camera. We trained a human hands classifier and used this classifier along with a standard face classifier to create two autonomous interactive games: single-player ("Imitate Me, Imitate You") and two-player ("Pass the Pose"). Further, we developed and implemented a suite of new interactive games in which the robot is teleoperated by remote control. Each …

Accelprint:Accelerometers Are Different By Birth, Sanorita Dey

Theses and Dissertations

This paper submits a hypothesis that smartphone accelerometers possess unique fingerprints. We believe that the fingerprints arise from hardware imperfections during the sensor manufacturing process, causing every sensor chip to respond differently to the same motion stimulus. The differences in responses are subtle enough that they do not affect most of the higher level functions computed on them. Nonetheless, upon close inspection, these fingerprints emerge with consistency, and can even be somewhat independent of the stimulus that generates them. Measurements and classification on 80 standalone accelerometer chips, 25 Android phones, and 2 tablets, show precision and recall upward of 96%, …

Accelerating Short Read Mapping Using A Dsp Based Coprocessor, Shaun I. Gause

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in next generation sequencing technologies have allowed short reads to be generated at an increasing rate, shifting the bottleneck of the sequencing process to the short read mapping computations. High costs and extended processing times drive researchers to pursue more efficient solutions with an overall goal of a short read mapping architecture capable of processing short reads as they are generated. Digital signal processors have shown high performance capabilities while maintaining low power consumption in a wide field of applications. This thesis explores the use of a DSP accelerated exact match short read mapping algorithm, focusing on a performance …

3d Grain Segmentation In Superalloy Images Using Multichannel Edge-Weighted Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation Based Methods, Yu Cao

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate grain segmentation on 3D superalloy images is very important in materials science and engineering. From grain segmentation, we can derive the underlying superalloy grains' micro-structures, based on which many important physical, mechanical and chemical properties of the superalloy samples can be evaluated. However, grain segmentation is usually a very challenging problem since: 1) even a small 3D superalloy sample may contain hundreds of grains; 2) carbides and noises may degrade the imaging quality; and 3) the intensity within a grain may not be homogeneous. In addition, the same grain may present different appearances, i.e. intensities, under different microscope settings. …

An Analysis Of Constructive Network Formation Models, Gary Fredericks

Theses and Dissertations

We study a family of network formation models to determine how payment rules affect the final network topologies that emerge. In our model a set of nodes starts out without any edges and the nodes must pay for the creation of edges using one of several different payment mechanisms. Example payment mechanisms include one node paying for the whole edge, and the cost being shared equally between the two nodes. We show how the set of networks formed by some payment rules are subsets of those formed by other rules. We also perform extensive empirical tests on networks of up …

Plc Code Vulnerabilities Through Scada Systems, Sidney E. Valentine, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems are widely used in automated manufacturing and in all areas of our nation's infrastructure. Applications range from chemical processes and water treatment facilities to oil and gas production and electric power generation and distribution. Current research on SCADA system security focuses on the primary SCADA components and targets network centric attacks. Security risks via attacks against the peripheral devices such as the Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) have not been sufficiently addressed.

Our research results address the need to develop PLC applications that are correct, safe and secure. This research provides an analysis of …

Who Needs Tablets? We Do, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

What role do tablets play increasingly in our daily lives? Is it possible that they could revolutionize the future of publishing and education?

Book Review: Placing The Suspect Behind The Keyboard: Using Digital Forensics And Investigative Techniques To Identify Cybercrime Suspects, Thomas Nash

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In this must read for any aspiring novice cybercrime investigator as well as the seasoned professional computer guru alike, Brett Shaver takes the reader into the ever changing and dynamic world of Cybercrime investigation. Shaver, an experienced criminal investigator, lays out the details and intricacies of a computer related crime investigation in a clear and concise manner in his new easy to read publication, Placing the Suspect behind the Keyboard. Using Digital Forensics and Investigative techniques to Identify Cybercrime Suspects. Shaver takes the reader from start to finish through each step of the investigative process in well organized …

Automating Vendor Fraud Detection In Enterprise Systems, Kishore Singh, Peter Best, Joseph Mula

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow annually. Many organizations are poorly prepared to prevent and detect fraud. Fraud detection strategies are intended to quickly and efficiently identify fraudulent activities that circumvent preventative measures. In this paper, we adopt a DesignScience methodological framework to develop a model for detection of vendor fraud based on analysis of patterns or signatures identified in enterprise system audit trails. The concept is demonstrated by developing prototype software. Verification of the prototype is achieved by performing a series of experiments. Validation is achieved by independent reviews from auditing practitioners. Key findings of …

Book Review: Professional Penetration Testing: Creating And Learning In A Hacking Lab 2e, Joshua Bartolomie

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Organizations often strive for proactive information security programs in an effort to limit occurrence and impact of security breaches. However, traditional security programs run the risk of being unable to provide adequate insight and proactive awareness into real attack vectors that may exist within their organizations. With attack methods and efforts becoming increasingly aggressive, and effective, organizations must take equally assertive measures to protect their critical information and assets. Penetration testing is one of those tools that is often misunderstood, overlooked, and undervalued. A true adversary would not hesitate to exploit every potential to gain entry or cause a disruption …

Technology Corner: Calculating The Number Of Android Lock Patterns: An Unfinished Study In Number Theory, Gary C. Kessler

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Although one is unlikely to ever want to brute-force an Android lock pattern, many do wonder about the relative strength of the lock pattern versus a multidigit personal identification number (PIN). It becomes obvious pretty quickly that there are many more lock patterns than the 10,000 possible four-digit PINs.

Science Column: Reconstruction: The Experimental Side Of Digital Forensics, Fred Cohen

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Many in digital forensics seem to forget that the science part of digital forensics means experimentation and that implies a whole lot of things that most practitioners never learned.

Book Review: Iphone And Ios Forensic: Investigation, Analysis And Mobile Security For Apple Iphone, Ipad And Ios Devices, Simson Garfinkel

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In April 2011 news outlets around the world revealed shocking news about Apple’s iPhone: for reasons that were not apparently clear, every iPhone contained a small SQLite database that logged where and when the user had been whenever the phone was turned on, and those records went back for pretty much as long as the user had owned their phone. Apple eventually declared that the data cache was the result of a bug and issued a software update to prune the database (it had previously grown without limit). Privacy activists rejoiced that their beloved iPhones were once again trustworthy. But …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Multi-Label Segmentation Propagation For Materials Science Images Incorporating Topology And Interactivity, Jarrell Waggoner

Theses and Dissertations

Segmentation propagation is the problem of transferring the segmentation of an image to a neighboring image in a sequence. This problem is of particular importance to materials science, where the accurate segmentation of a series of 2D serial-sectioned images of multiple, contiguous 3D structures has important applications. Such structures may have prior-known shape, appearance, and/or topology among the underlying structures which can be considered to improve segmentation accuracy. For example, some materials images may have structures with a specific shape or appearance in each serial section slice, which only changes minimally from slice to slice; and some materials may exhibit …